May 30, 2008
Burundi's Rebel Leader Returns Home for Peace Deal
By REUTERS
Filed at 9:20 a.m. ET
BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - The exiled leader of Burundi's last rebel group returned to the capital on Friday to begin implementing a stalled deal seen as the final obstacle to peace in the tiny central African country.
Agathon Rwasa, leader of the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), arrived at Bujumbura airport with the South African mediator for talks between his ethnic Hutu group and Burundi's ethnically mixed but Hutu-led government.
"Our people and our country have suffered much because of this war. It's time to look forward and build lasting peace and stability in Burundi," Rwasa said at the airport.
"We are ready to lay down our weapons and bring our combatants to assembling areas. We want peace to be a reality in Burundi."
Rwasa was greeted by hundreds of cheering supporters. He was met by diplomats, government officials and flanked by South African soldiers.
Residents were cautious about peace prospects.
"I live in a suburb that has been seriously affected by fighting between the army and the FNL. We hope that we will no longer hear the noise of guns," said shop owner Omar Ngarigari.
Officials said Rwasa was due to meet President Pierre Nkurunziza, himself a former Hutu guerrilla leader elected in 2005 as part of an African-brokered peace agreement backed by the United Nations.
The FNL was not part of that deal. The group signed a separate pact with the government nearly 20 months ago but it has stalled over disagreements, and sporadic fighting has broken out.
"It's a turning point in the conflict, but we're still far from securing this agreement," said David Mugnier, central African analyst for the think-tank International Crisis Group.
"GIVE US PEACE"
Clashes between Burundian troops and FNL rebels have killed nearly 100 people in recent weeks. The coffee-growing nation is emerging from more than a decade of ethnic conflict that has killed some 300,000 people.
Burundi and the FNL jointly agreed to a ceasefire last week.
"Thirteen years of war is too much. Many people died and houses were destroyed. We hope Rwasa and the government will sit down and give us peace," said trader Jacqueline Nduwayezu.
Analysts say the rebel faction numbers less than 3,000, a claim the FNL disputes.
Also on Friday, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch accused Nkurunziza's government of arresting more than 300 people since April who are suspected of being part of the FNL's political wing, the Party for the Liberation of the Hutu-People.
The party is the oldest Hutu rebel movement.
"Officials should release civilian detainees, or charge them if there is evidence that they committed crimes," Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to the group, said in a statement.
Nkurunziza has been praised for improving Burundi's economy and integrating fighters into the nation's army. But rights groups criticize his government for what they call heavy-handed intimidation of opponents and corruption.
(Additional reporting by Ezekiel Kamwaga in Dar es Salaam and Aweys Yusuf and Jack Kimball in Nairobi)
(Writing by Jack Kimball, editing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura Hull and Mary Gabriel)
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )
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